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KURDISTAN ON FIRE
"Kurdistan on Fire" is part of the history of the tragic events that have taken place in the greater occupied Kurdistan with special emphasis on Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan from 1986-1990 as reported in the western, mainly American, media.
What you see and read here is only the tip of the iceberg. The scope of the Kurdish tragedy and the true extent of the destruction of Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan is impossible to know until after the fall of the present regime when, hopefully, a full inquiry can be made into the untold crimes of the regime of Saddam Hussein against the defenseless Kurdish population.
Iran, Turkey, and Syria have not been any more humane than Iraq to their own Kurdish population. The only reason that Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan is in the spotlight is that the Kurds there have been more active in their fight for freedom in the last few decades than their brethren in the other parts of Kurdistan. In Iran, the Shah kept the Kurds under tight control and Khomeini declared a "holy war" against them soon after the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Turkey does not recognize its twelve million Kurds as a separate nationality and considers them "mountain Turks who have forgotten their language" and miraculously learnt another. Turkey's policy of forcible assimilation is notorious. Syria's policy of Arabization of its share of the Kurdish prize is a long-standing one.
Even though the Kurds have been subjected to state terrorism and extreme violations of their basic human rights by the various states that have controlled their destiny ever since the dismemberment of Kurdistan and its annexation by force to Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria at the end of the First World War, they never imagined anything like the reign of terror under Saddam Hussein and his Baath Arab Socialist Party. For the Kurds, life under Saddam has been a hell; there is not a family or an inch of land that his savagery has not touched. The regime of Saddam has committed genocide against a people who have asked for nothing but to live in peace, dignity, and freedom in their own land.
Recently, an American television reporter remarked in disbelief about the "Intifada" in Palestine/Israel that since the beginning of the uprising over two years ago two hundred and fifty homes have been demolished. A Lithuanian woman commented the other day about her country's drive for independence that, "We have been waiting for independence for fifty years!" The Kurds are far from wishing to minimize the suffering of any other nation and the sacrifices they have made for freedom, for we are for the freedom and self-determination of all nations; however, we must also speak the truth and, thus, we would like to say to these two individuals and millions of others: Go and see Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan and find out if there are still any villages standing; study a bit of Kurdish history and find out how long we have been waiting for our freedom and our independence.
Guardian Third World Review
Friday January 17
Christiane More reports on the tangled alliances and conflicts in the frontier country between Iraq and Iran
The long march of the Kurds
Two hours north-west of Sulaymaniyah on the way to the Iranian border, you pass the last Iraqi army post. From there on. vou are in a sort of Kurdish Wild West, a barren country, where villages and springs are few and far between. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has its own checkpoint here, in the “Liberated Zone.” Since 1933 this has been the refuge of the armed opposition groups to the Khomeini regime, from here they conduct their operations with Baghdad's blessing.
Each of these groups has set up its headquarters here — mudwalled, earth-roofed houses for the top brass, tented villages for the rest. These settlements have been set up alongside the scattered villages in the area, which are built into the mountainside, giving it the appearance of a gigantic stairway. Smuggled goods are openly on sale here — Adidas trainers (made in Iran), samovars. Iraqi cigarettes and Kalashnikovs side by side with crates of Pepsi and blocks of ice. Radio transmitters have been installed, field hospitals, training camps, primary schools and even prisons (for Iranian captives) have been set up.
There is fierce rivalry between the two main factions competing for public sympathy in the area: the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDP1) brings in medical volunteers from abroad and organises mass vaccination campaigns, while the Komala (Kurdish Communist Party of Iran) relies on the dynamism and commitment of its fighters. A large number of young people, including a high proportion of women, are attracted by their revolutionary and egalitarian fervour.
A dozen “peshmergas” (Kurdish freedom fighters — “those who precede death”) conduct us to Alan, near Sardasht inside Iran, at the foot of Mount Nori, which is patrolled by 500-600 Iranian soldiers. We pass the Komala checkpoint where smugglers exact customs duties, issuing an official looking “receipt.” The political groups share control of the crossing points between Iran and Iraq andthe dues are one of their main sources of income.
We are now in territory controlled by the Komala. Gunfire can be heard in the distance. A few days before these villages had been heavily bombarded by Iranian cannon and mortar …
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